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For me it was Carcassonne and Dominion. For a while these were the only two games I had (not counting kids games I had because my daughter who was just starting school about then). My sister bought Catan and lots of its expansions. That sealed the deal. I was hooked.

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My big jump was Catan. Kept seeing it in a store and finally bought it. For the first time in my adult life, I could sit down with my parents, and we all have a good time playing together. The mechanics of Catan was like nothing I had experienced before. I loved the game so much that I brought three major expansions and the extra expansions to play with 5 & 6 players. Never had I ever payed much money for a board game before and I thought I never would again (what irony).

Then I visited my sister who introduced me to Carcassonne and Dominion. I lost every time I played with her. Trying to figure out how farmer scoring came in at the end of the game blew my mind. Despite enjoying these games, I didn't know there was a whole new world of euros and thematic games.

Several years later my sister saw the YouTube series called Tabletop. Soon we were watching every new episode together. I was finally properly introduced to the tantalizing world of modern board gaming. I brought a few games which appeared on the show, then a few more. Found BGG and began targeting high ranking games. One of the early games I brought was Agricola and Ticket to Ride. I was soon hooked. I won't even begin to talk about what happened when I finally discovered Kickstarter.

Edited June 1 by RomyCat

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My family played all kinds of games while growing up. My favorites were Mille Borne, Pay Day and the Farming Game. I even remember having The Trump game from way back when, along with Money, Life and of course Risk.

I was then introduced to Catan, Dominion and Quarriors from a few friends and have now just started buying other games that are not the "traditional" ones.

Mille Borne still has a dear place in my heart though as my favorite all time.

Edited June 1 by WxCougar

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My family played all kinds of games while growing up. My favorites were Mille Borne, Pay Day and the Farming Game. I even remember having The Trump game from way back when, along with Money, Life and of course Risk.

I was then introduced to Catan, Dominion and Quarriors from a few friends and have now just started buying other games that are not the "traditional" ones.

Mille Borne still has a dear place in my heart though as my favorite all time.

I loved playing Mille Borne and Pay Day as a kid. My sister and I as kids played a lot of Monopoly, Risk, and other popular commercial games. But as we got older, we began playing more video games than board games. Took many years before we discovered modern board games, even if we didn't know what that meant for a while. We only knew we liked Catan and Carassonne. We didn't have a clue what an euro game was.

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My first real love of board games came as a child from Monopoly. I think the style and theme completely grabbed me and I fell in love. There were summers I would play monopoly with a neighborhood kid in a shed all day. I played other board games as a kid too but Monopoly was king.

when I hit hs and college I strayed for a bit and even during the early parts of my career. I didn’t know board gaming had begun to expand until I started hearing about Catan. I remember buying catan and still have it sealed but have never gotten around to playing it.

years ago I remember seeing on Amazon a deal for this board game called Dominion. I hadn’t played a game in forever so I decided to pick it up and try it out. The rest is history.

It’s funny because I know the board gamer scoffs whenever they hear Monopoly. I don’t play it anymore (though my relatives still buy me versions of it all the time for Christmas and birthdays...sigh....) but it is the game that planted the seed.

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My family played all kinds of games while growing up. My favorites were Mille Borne, Pay Day and the Farming Game. I even remember having The Trump game from way back when, along with Money, Life and of course Risk.

I was then introduced to Catan, Dominion and Quarriors from a few friends and have now just started buying other games that are not the "traditional" ones.

Mille Borne still has a dear place in my heart though as my favorite all time.

We had a Mille Borne deck and I loved the style of it but never had anyone around who wanted to play it. I remember I would shuffle the deck and try to create a solo variant when I was a kid. Always failed . Don’t know the real rules because I never played them

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I loved Mille Borne too. We played a lot of commercial games as a kid. The board games we enjoyed the most were the ones where you could sarcastically exclaim something like "Soooorrrrrrryyyyyy!!!!" or "Flat tire. Aaawwww that's a shame." We played a lot of monopoly until the older kids got sick of it. But there was also Life (still enjoy spinning a wheel), Clue, Scrabble, and of course Sorry. Note: my favorites weren't board games though. Now I realize I'm dating myself here, but I loved Jacks (probably because I was much better at it than my evil sister) and pick up sticks and barrel of monkees.

Then my game playing faded into mostly just playing cards. I became quite the card shark (a skill I picked up from my mother of all people). I didn't get back into board games until I was in my mid twenties. My buddy Bob moved into town introduced me to "Empire Builder". Initially I was terrible at it, and he kicked my butt (my first goal was to make it to 100 before he won with 250) every time for a while, but geez I wanted to keep playing it so I could keep getting better. Eventually we became pretty equally good at it. Alas, Bob and Margie retired to Cary, NC about 10 years ago. I tried to get other people interested in that suite of games (different maps and twists). One group I "lost in the divorce". The other group dubbed me "The Evil Empire", and didn't want to play them with me anymore because I "Bob'ed" them.

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I learned Cribbage from my grandpa at about age six, and loved the balance of strategy and luck.

My Dad and I played Axis and Allies all through my youth. I loved that game and it was probably the one that piqued my interest in modern-style hobby games.

Through high school I played a lot of the Games Workshop games: Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Necromunda, Mordheim, Battlefleet Gothic, the works. We also had a group that got together and played Diplomacy. Two friends didn’t talk to each other all through the college years due to a particularly bitter/cunning Diplomacy backstab.

Post-college I had a lull where I wasn’t doing much analog gaming, until a friend introduced me to Commands and Colors. From there I discovered another GMT game, Twilight Struggle, and I was hooked.

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I learned Cribbage from my grandpa at about age six, and loved the balance of strategy and luck.

My Dad and I played Axis and Allies all through my youth. I loved that game and it was probably the one that piqued my interest in modern-style hobby games.

Through high school I played a lot of the Games Workshop games: Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Necromunda, Mordheim, Battlefleet Gothic, the works. We also had a group that got together and played Diplomacy. Two friends didn’t talk to each other all through the college years due to a particularly bitter/cunning Diplomacy backstab.

Post-college I had a lull where I wasn’t doing much analog gaming, until a friend introduced me to Commands and Colors. From there I discovered another GMT game, Twilight Struggle, and I was hooked.

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I always love to share this: my first board game was Arkham Horror with all the expansions. ?I was a little overwhelmed and felt pretty useless. It was a big group - the club at my undergrad (where my boyfriend and I met...) - easily at least 10 people. We absolutely lost.

But I still loved the heck out of it!

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Both board games (Monopoly, Acquire, Payday, Mille Bornes...etc. Probably had played almost anything from Parker Brothers, Milton Bradley or 3M at some point) and card games (Bridge, Pinochle, Oh Hell, etc.).

First move into Euro games was definitely Catan.

Bridge was probably my first game addiction, with Catan being the first Euro addiction.

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Both board games (Monopoly, Acquire, Payday, Mille Bornes...etc. Probably had played almost anything from Parker Brothers, Milton Bradley or 3M at some point) and card games (Bridge, Pinochle, Oh Hell, etc.).

First move into Euro games was definitely Catan.

Bridge was probably my first game addiction, with Catan being the first Euro addiction.

Finally something you and I disagree on. Catan and Carr* would be listed on the games I regretted ever playing.

Never got into Bridge, though I love me some double Pinochle (lost those players in the divorce), hearts, double deck hearts. I played a ton of Euchre in college, but when I moved to Minnesota, no one here played it. 500 is their game (at least in the 90's), so I switched to that.

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Finally something you and I disagree on. Catan and Carr* would be listed on the games I regretted ever playing.

Never got into Bridge, though I love me some double Pinochle (lost those players in the divorce), hearts, double deck hearts. I played a ton of Euchre in college, but when I moved to Minnesota, no one here played it. 500 is their game (at least in the 90's), so I switched to that.

Well I agree with you on Carr*. That is one of only a handful of games on my "I will never play again" list. As I said, I don't regret trying it.. I typically will give any game at least two plays before I pass judgement on it - but Carr* has had that and more and is definitely "never again" for me.

With you on the double pinochle, hearts and double deck hearts (did you play it as cancellation hearts?). I've done a little Euchre, couldn't get too many people into it. Bridge was big for me at college as well. Also got into Canasta and Cribbage at that time - though I haven't played Canasta in the 20 years since.

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Well I agree with you on Carr*. That is one of only a handful of games on my "I will never play again" list. As I said, I don't regret trying it.. I typically will give any game at least two plays before I pass judgement on it - but Carr* has had that and more and is definitely "never again" for me.

With you on the double pinochle, hearts and double deck hearts (did you play it as cancellation hearts?). I've done a little Euchre, couldn't get too many people into it. Bridge was big for me at college as well. Also got into Canasta and Cribbage at that time - though I haven't played Canasta in the 20 years since.

Cancellation Hearts is more fun than the "only the first one played counts towards taking a trick". I have some dyslexia, so Cribbage was torture for me. 2s and 3s get mixed up as well as 6s and 7s. Never played Canasta, but it's fun to say.

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I always love to share this: my first board game was Arkham Horror with all the expansions. ?I was a little overwhelmed and felt pretty useless. It was a big group - the club at my undergrad (where my boyfriend and I met...) - easily at least 10 people. We absolutely lost.

But I still loved the heck out of it!

I have two different gaming groups that love Arkham Horror. That game definitely looks intimidating to set up, and took time to get used to, but it was fun. Eldritch Horror was also fun. This also led to playing Betrayal on the House on the Hill which is also a great game.

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I have two different gaming groups that love Arkham Horror. That game definitely looks intimidating to set up, and took time to get used to, but it was fun. Eldritch Horror was also fun. This also led to playing Betrayal on the House on the Hill which is also a great game.

I own Betrayal on the House on the Hill. Its a hard name to remember for a game, but a lot of fun. I love being the betrayer. So far, I think I have won every game I have played.

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I like that game too. Seems the betrayer has the upper hand, but I have been on groups that defeated them.

I have been the betrayer once and they defeated me. We have had about a 50% success rate on defeating the betrayer. Some scenarios are definitely weighted heavily in the betrayer's court. But some times we get lucky : ).

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I have been the betrayer once and they defeated me. We have had about a 50% success rate on defeating the betrayer. Some scenarios are definitely weighted heavily in the betrayer's court. But some times we get lucky : ).

I just can't get into that game.

Probably because the second time I played it left a really bad feeling for me when the betrayer basically did "Oh.. I move over here, pull off this special move, and you just die." I forget what scenario it was, but basically he just walked into a room, performed like a half dozen attacks that basically would one-turn-kill anyone.

And of course because of how Betrayal works, no one knows this until he starts pulling it off.

This game is very close to being on my 'never again' list.

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Gaming started young for traditional board games like stratego, monopoly, life etc but that did give way to video games. D&d and vampire the masquerade were an on and off thing. But when getting back into board games happened and I learned how much variety there was the first game I can remember really grabbing me was gloom. My friends are big into storytelling (every Friday the 13th we get on discord voice chat and tell stories) So with gloom it would kind of become this long running narrative that we’d all alter as we went along! Fantastic time and some of the best gaming experiences I can remember. Hmmmm makes me want to play it again. Been a long time.